From Traditional to Present-day Kasàlà
Traditional Kasàlà
My name is Kasàlà Praise-Poetry
I am also known as Izibongo Oriki Amazina
And numerous other names
According countries and languages
I was born very long ago
In those times I was only spoken
I am from Central and Southern Africa
I am from Eastern and Western Africa
I was already known and written in Ancient Egypt
And even in Mesopotamia and later in Greco-Roman times
Under the forms of Inscription or Aretalogy
You will find me in the Mahabharata and in other holy scriptures too
However in those times
I was only enjoyed by gods and kings and queens
It's a pleasure to reveal a few peculiarities of mine
That make me so attractive and so powerful
I step in to support major life transitions
Birth wedding welcoming farewells
Especially the ultimate farewell the return to the invisible
Indeed nobody accesses the ancestor status
Unless they're escorted by me
For this reason I am ritual poetry
I am oral and public poetry
I am a poetry to be recited and heard
I am the ideal medium to celebrate the other oneself or God
In other words to celebrate life in all its manifestations
Through flowery epithets strong names and clan mottos
Through daring metaphors and unexpected hyperboles
Through savory praises and initiation symbols
I am a special and incantatory language
Being rhythm movement source and life source
I convene the body I convene the whole being
I thus speak to spirits to ancestors to animals to plants to stones
Therefore I am rather parataxic and concise and silent
I am connexion poetry
I connect humans with other humans
I connect the human being with him- or herself
I connect human beings with The-more-than-Human
I convene the ancestors and The-Ultimate-Ancestor
I sail between the visible and the invisible
I am The-Highlighter-of-high-deeds The-Highliter-of-challenges-met
In order to invite human beings
To remind their nobility
I acknowledge and praise individuals beyond their groups
I acknowledge their particular merits
And congratulate them most warmly
For all these reasons
I am The-Right-Word The-Ultimate-Word
I stir up strong emotions because I touch the life core
Present-day Kasàlà
My name is Present-day Kasàlà
Some people call me Kasàlà Junior
I am The-Traveler who gathered wealth
From Africa and Europe and Asia
And finally settled in America
Where the Aztecs Inuit Mi’kmaqs Atikameqs and other Native Americans
Used to enjoy their forests and meadows and rivers in pre-Columbian times
Where enslaved Africans brought their muscles brains drums gods and praises
My mother-father is Kabuta Ngo Semzara Ngèlènjì Bênyì Ntalaja Matanda
He who is called Jandhi in North-America
The Multilingual-Nightingale that discovered my deep roots throughout Africa
The renown Kasàlà writer who wrote innumerable fine kasàlàs
He who created a Kasàlà school and developed a methodology to teach me worldwide
He who he allowed young and old to access this multifaceted poetry
I can be enjoyed worldwide by small and big, old and young
As well as by short and tall, white and black
The more so as I can be written in all types of letters
While I travel through the World Wide Web
Nowadays I am also created just for the pleasure of being read
See what a colorful Baobab-tree I have become !
Indeed I am the offspring of ancient kasàlàs and izibongos
I grew out of long and rich traditions common to African cultures
Nowadays I can be recited or sung danced or simply read in silence
Since my universe was widened from orality to writing
Some poets have developed the marvelous instant writing
The ability to create a kasàlà for someone while they are talking
I am The-Powerful Tool that enhances self-esteem
And improves your inner dialogue that determines your actions
When practicing me you gain empowerment and inner freedom
While enlarging yourself while continuing your own creation
Completing Unkulunkulu's work who made the initial sketch
For I am Creative-Energy that changes from poetry to action
I am the Efficient-Medicine for the broken psyche
Threatened by meaninglessness and I bring back the joie de vivre
I remind women and men from north and south
That each of them has got a chair in this world
While coaching them on how to reconquer their lost rights
I have two cousins They are called Slam and Rap
Like me they need to be performed in front of an audience
Though celebrating is my specificity as is the ability
To express gratitude and joy and love and empathy
In short Ubuntu or the art of being human
Therefore I am Initiation-Path that leads to beauty
Meditation and Silence are allies that reconnect man
To himself and to the seas the forests and the planets
To his source and to the Reality beyond himself
I am Springboard and Perfect-expression-of-wonderment
I am The-Teacher that teaches humility
I am The-Laugher that trains old and young
To laugh of the passing phenomena but first of all
To laugh of themselves and of their finitude
In order to produce me and to move the listener
The gifted poet suggests what can’t be said
With figures of speech such as metaphors and hyperboles
However I totally renewed the art of celebrating
By experiencing praise as a mere figure of style
I am The-Reshaper that reshapes itself
And engenders new styles such as the Enemy Kasàlà
The Kasàlà of Other in I-form the extended use of the Signature
The Poetic Jam Session the Autobiography Kasàlà
The Evaluation and the Reporting Kasàlà
All this is made possible thanks to the cooperation
Of inspired practitioners in warm and cold countries
The Hungry-Ones that eat and digest me
I am the Self-Esteem-Enhancer that reminds you of your nobility
I am The-Grateful-One that is crafted
By artists from Africa from Europe and America
With their specificities expressed in their own languages
With their histories written with their tears or blood or songs
My polymorph language is embellished and enriched
With proverbs and praise names from my ancestors
With prayers and wishes and blessings from the bottom of human heart
And also with awakening quotes from universal written sources
I am The-End-Product of endless contacts and disciplines
My roots are in Africa while my foliage blossoms anywhere